Ambient Mage

*Lucas' Pov*

When I woke up, Aurelia was still sleeping.

I pulled up the covers and let her finish.

'Alea, how is Mommy?'

'She's doing good Daddy.'

'Alright then, I'm going to see the leaders here, do you want to come with me?'

She looked at Mo- no Aura.

The side effects of talking to Alea like a baby, had me almost slipping in word choice.

Then back to me.

'I don't want to leave, Mommy, but I don't want to be without Daddy so I wanna go without you.'

'Don't worry we won't be out for too long.'

I stroked her head as she climbed around to my shoulders and slumped herself over my right one.

I left the barriers and began my walk to Rose.

These were normal steps, not deliberate ones like last time.

I had many eyes staring at me.

"Hey Lucas, what the hell, are you ignoring me?"

I turned to my side.

"Ah, sorry Morgan, I'm going to see Rose, you're welcome to join me."

My voice was softer, than I'd imagined, a side effect of however long I slept.

"Alright."

She came up behind me and began to walk shoulder and shoulder to me."

"How do you feel?"

"Better."

"Like before the dungeon better?"

"Something like that."

"Hey, can I ask how Aurelia is doing?"

"When have you ever asked me permission for that?"

I looked at her shocked.

"I never felt that we were so different until today."

"i understood what Master meant by your potential."

"It was like facing Master, when I watched you demolish those monsters."

"So I guess what I'm saying is you're better than me."

"So I guess I feel the need to ask, since-I don't know, alright?"

"I just felt like you wouldn't react to me the same if I had just rudely asked."

"I-"

I tried to get a word in.

"I know it was irrational, but I wanted to know if the person I saw during the transformation changed the person I knew."

"So thank you for not changing...."

Her words fizzled out.

"Can I check on Aurelia?"

"Sure."

I allowed the barrier to let Morgan to pass.

She waved back to me as I walked up the stairs to the main hall.

I entered the building, and saw a man and woman exchanging papers.

They looked at me like I was royalty, or something completely foreign to them.

"Hello."

"Ah, hello."

"Hello."

They didn't offer much in the way of introductions, and I assumed as the two rooms on the right and to the front of me were unoccupied that these rooms, belonged to them.

So I peered into the left room, and sure enough, I saw Rose sitting at the desk with a ton of paperwork, which shouldn't have been possible due to the lack of paper down here.

Claudia was sitting on what looked like another desk.

"Knock, knock."

I said rapping my knuckles against the open door.

"Lucas?"

Rose stood up.

Claudia was close behind.

She moved around her desk and up to me.

She began lifting my shirt and upon seeing no injuries, hugged me.

"Um...."

"Oh, sorry."

"What was that about Rose?"

Claudia interjected on her behalf.

"She's been worried for you, also she has a little crush."

"Did you have to drop it on him like a bucket of cold water?"

"Would you have confessed anytime soon?"

"We're in a dungeon, does this look like a good time to confess?"

I stared at Rose and laughed.

"What was my confession funny?"

"No, Claudia's nonchalant attitude is."

"Hey Lukey, Dia remember?"

"How about Claudie?"

Claudia turned red.

"Not so funny anymore."

Claudia left her desk and walked over to Rose, before leaning over and whispering something in her ear, that she whispered loud enough for both of us to hear.

As Rose, turned a little pink, Claudia walked out of the room, with a smirk.

She had a weak point huh?

What a woman.

"Rose, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

I turned and shut the door behind me.

"So let's talk."

"Sure."

I sat down at the desk, as did Rose, we began to work on the material.

"So where did this come from Rose?"

"I don't know, I guess it just happened after you saved me, you saved all of us."

"I get it."

"I see, I understand, it's hard to accept the feelings of someone you barely know."

On the contrary, I know a lot about you.

"Not quite, but I'd rather start as friends."

"I know it's not fair to you who has already poured out their heart, but it's all I can do."

"Speaking in merchant talk huh?"

"For you? Always."

I laughed.

***

*Rose's Pov*

As we sat down at the desks, Lucas began with the paperwork.

At first I tried to focus on my work, but I occasionally caught myself glancing up at him.

The work gave us time to formulate a response to each other.

However, when he said that one phrase I could no longer concentrate.

I stared at him as the doors to my office exploded open.

"Lucas."

I saw Charlotte looking at me and then at Lucas.

"You playboy. Leave the poor girl to her work, we'll do the handover of duties, for now get out."

And Charlotte kicked him out.

He said something about returning to his room.

"Hey, Rose, ignore him, he's doing his whole 'I'm walking on a rainbow' routine."

"The what?"

"A routine he does when he awakens refreshed."

"Ah."

"Anyways, he didn't say anything crazy did he?"

"We talked about us."

Charlotte's face told me she wanted to skirt around this topic.

But as I opened my mouth she looked quite curious as to what Lucas had to say.

"He said, something along the lines of it wasn't fair to me, because I didn't know him, and falling in love with him, may have been because of saving me."

"A fair and reasonable response, and you?"

"I stayed silent."

"Then what?"

"He said we could start as friends, that it was the only comprimise he would make."

"I could tell he felt bad about how he worded it."

I stopped.

"It's okay Rose, it's not that he doesn't like you or anything, he just values a woman's freedom, over their love for him."

"From what he's told me and what I've gathered, he isn't into women who don't have a goal and strive towards it."

"He's a person who loves women that pursue their passions, whether it's their goals or work, or him."

"That's where he finds his romance."

I nodded.

"Don't cry, I'm sure his rejection stings, but I promise you this won't be the last time you'll talk about this."

I nodded again.

"Thank you Charlotte."

"No worries, besides in his harem of sorts, we have to look out for each other, otherwise we'll be bullied by him with no support."

"Huh?"

"Oh, just wait, he loves to prank us."

"Oh."

That was something I didn't know.

Most of the time he was either a well spoken young man, or a battle hardened vet.

I guess he had more than what I'd known.

But I welcomed it, I wanted to know more about him.

"So about the handoff..."

"Yes, let's do that after you begin prep work on the other camp, Lucas wanted to change priorities to the camp."

"I understand, I'll get to it right away."

***

*Lucas' Pov*

I needed to get to planning.

The tyrant had really interrupted my plans, most of the things I had planned to grab from the labyrinth had been grabbed by the camp, once they discovered my map, courtesy of Aurelia believing it was important to setting the camp up.

Well, they were mana crystals for increasing my mana pool, or helping Alea, but I guess the idea was out of the playbook.

Thankfully the important things inside the prison of the map were yet to probably discovered.

The prison held two important items, and one item that was generally useless, but to me it was habit.

The first item pertained to obtaining an eldritch bloodline item.

The second related to my ascension to the 4th circle.

The last was a god's stone to communicate with the gods.

According to the game, there was a .1% chance to do so.

Players had done so, but according to those who had, the final message, was to not reveal the words, as it was to keep the 'words of gods' hidden and rewarding to new players.

I who had tried to get the stone nearly 40 times with no success, had lost hope.

This time was going to be no different, but now it was me going through the motions of this episode.

I was a little worried that the camp, since we took the original camp's location, was located right above the prison, but that was a worry for later.

Right now I was seated watching over a sleeping ducal princess.

I moved my hand through her hair.

'Daddy do you like Mommy's hair?'

'Of course, but I love Mommy for more than just that.'

'She's cute, kind, assertive, she knows her goal of achieving a high status as a mage and works for it.'

'She has a cute messy face and voice in the morning, I love listening to her talk about her magic research or any magic subject.'

'I love her interest in me, and the obsession, even if I lie and tell her I don't.'

'Luke.'

I pulled my hand out of Aura's hair and looked away from Alea, and down towards Aura.

She was watching me.

'I appreciate the compliments, but please, stop petting me.'

She had pulled the covers up past her cheeks, showing off her purple irises.

'Of course, Alea, I also love my wife's purple eyes.'

I gave Aura a kiss on the forehead.

'Can you put me back to sleep Luke? I haven't recovered enough mana yet.'

'Sure, I'll let the others know.'

I casted a light sleep spell on the red Aura.

I once again left the room and went to find Charlotte.

As I walked out, I nearly bumped into her.

"Ah, hey Charlotte, I was about to look for you."

"What a coincidence, I was coming here to look for you."

"What did you need?"

"Well, I wanted to see you and Aurelia. What did you need?"

"I need to talk to you and the admins about the other camp. As for seeing Aurelia, she is asleep."

"Then it's fine, let's head to the main building again and go over what we know."

"Alright."

***

"Let's make introductions."

Charlotte spoke first at the 5 person table.

"Hello, everyone I am Lucas, I'm sure you've heard either nothing or too much from Aurelia already, so I want to get to know you."

"Hello, Lucas, I'm Maria Campbell, Viscount Campbells eldest daughter."

"Hello, I am Michael Arkhad, we already know each other, even if it's just in passing at those balls."

"Ah, I remember now, you wore that brown and red suit."

"It wasn't a good look."

"Are you still trying to-"

"Yes, and failing."

"It's okay I think everyone is still rooting for you."

Rose and Maria looked confused.

"What just happened?"

"We had a conversation about one of our first meetings."

"I believe princess, that's when you first introduced me to Claudia as well."

"It was the second, but I'll let it slide, since the first time and second time, were not only far apart, but she looked completely different."

"Right, anyways, what are the news on the other camp?"

"Well, from what we know from the 7 people we have retrieved, they have the other 11 5th tier beings in our grade."

"Yes, they call themselves the 5 soveriegns and 6 kings."

"Supremes, Michael."

"Right sovereigns, supremes same thing."

Maria looked visibly peeved.

"Anyways, they treat their fellow students like slaves, but so far no deaths have occured."

"As for quality of life, we are aware of the men and women in the 5th tier there creating their own slave harems, or at least trying to."

Charlotte and Rose recoiled.

"Well, Rose, move the liberation of that 'camp' up to top priority."

"I'm going to take Aurelia, Morgan, and Charlotte, if you don't mind."

"Not at all, but will the 4 of you be okay making the trek with so many high level monsters around?"

Maria and Michael gave her stares that would make anyone normally back down.

"I know you probably don't need it, but better to be safe than sorry, on top of that, I can worry for you, you know?"

With that, their stares softened as she relayed how she felt about me.

She was truly someone that needed to be cherished.